I am currently in the process of introducing my new Grade Two students to blogging. As this is a new concept for many students and parents I have prepared two handouts to send home to families.
They are an Introduction to Blogging note and Guide to Getting the Most out of 2KM’s blog note.
Feel free to check out the PDF versions of these files by clicking on the links.
Sue Waters has just written an excellent post about blogging in the classroom. She talks about the progression you would generally follow with blogging from
- having students simply comment on your class blog posts
- having students write posts on the class blog
- having students set up their own blog
Sue notes that with each of these steps comes an increase in student engagement. From my experience I believe this to be very true.
I like to follow the above steps however, as my students are only in Grade Two, I have only had one student so far who I have helped set up his own blog. This was due to his enormous competence and enthusiasm for blogging.
In my class, the second step of “posting on the class blog” can mean helping me to write a post on the IWB or independently writing up a post on using the classroom computers. In my experience, not all of my Grade 2 students would be able to do the latter but I do like to provide this opportunity to my more capable students as they become more competent with blogging.
Absolutely brilliant. This post has come at the right time for me as I want to start blogging with my children as well So thankyou !
So glad it helped Steph! Also be sure to have a good look at Sue Waters Edublogger site as I have learnt so much from her!
One thing that I’m considering is assigning one student a day to update a class blog that summarizing what was learned that day. Create a schedule and give it to the students to keep track of whose turn it is. I like this idea because students can comment on things that a student might have left out and it really forces the student to focus on the essentials of class. I teach high school so this might work better for my age group, but I thought I would share since you did. 🙂
Hi Kathleen, as always your parent guides are absolutely brilliant! I followed your link across to Riley’s blog and he is going really well.
I left a comment on his blog to wish him happy birthday and complement him on his blogging – hope that was okay?
@ Nicholas,
I really like that idea because it would mean less work for me! It would also give students more independence and ownership of the blog. Would be much easier with high school students but once I train my students up a bit more it might be an option. Thanks for the idea!
@ Sue,
Riley will LOVE having another visitor to his blog so thank you! Glad you liked the guides 🙂
Kathleen, thank you for sharing your notes home with us! Sometimes it seems like the hardest part of blogging with kids is communicating the purpose and explain blogging to families.
I agree Kelly. Blogging is so much more worthwhile when you have families involved!
Kudos for you in blogging with students at such an early grade! So many teachers I work with think that students at this level are not “ready” for blogging – and I wonder if it is really the teachers who are not ready.
I agree with Sue that your parent handouts are amazing! I can’t wait to hear more about your classroom blogs!
Thanks Theresa – I think you’re right that some teachers can use excuses such as “their students are too young” with blogging and all technologies. It really is worth giving a go though! 🙂 Glad you enjoyed the handouts.
Hi Kathleen,
I have been following your blog for a while now as we used blogs at Uni in our Literacy unit. I am interested in the permission form parents had to fill out for their kids to participate. Was it a school generated form or was it one provided by the Department?
Hi Belinda, our school created the permission form. It’s quite simple – just saying they give permission for photo, work, videos etc to be published. If you check out the DEECD website there are probably guidelines or forms your school could use however. Hope that helps and thanks for following my blog! 🙂
What a great site, Kathleen. I’ve been blogging with my Year 3 classes for a while now but this has given my level of motivation a real boost. 🙂
[…] two handouts used by Kathleen McGeady for her Grade 2 class […]
[…] If you happen to be reading this without having seen my previous post can I urge you to check that out first. Can I then recommend you especially take note of the detailed and interesting comments, for which I am really grateful. It seems like there are many teachers out ‘there’ who want to help and advise those new to blogging. You also might like to read Kathleen McGeady’s excellent instructions more about blogging. […]